Uribe should testify over DAS wiretapping scandal: state attorney

Uribe should testify over DAS wiretapping scandal: state attorney
Mar 12, 2014 posted by Andrew Wight

The lawyers defending former Presidential Chief of Staff Bernardo Moreno on charges relating to illegal wiretapping are insisting former President Alvaro Uribe give testimony.

The scandal in question broke in 2009, when it was revealed that the now-defunct DAS intelligence agency had been carrying out a campaign of warrantless wiretaps and surveillance targeting political opponents, Supreme Court justices, human rights organizations and journalists.

MORE: DAS wiretapping scandal

“It is important, useful, and adds meaningful value to the defense. It is necessary to be able to listen to Uribe, who at the crucial time, was serving as president of the republic,” defender Jaime Granados said.

MORE: Moreno vows to face justice over wiretap scandal

The scandal, dubbed the Colombian Watergate, implicated numerous high-ranking officials, including Moreno and Uribe. Moreno has been on trial for going on two years now. The former president, though, under ongoing investigation by Congress for his role in the scandal, has never been formally charged with any crime.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/uribe-testify-das-wiretapping-scandal-state-attorney/

Just like Pinochet, he appears to think he's entitled to protection he plans to get by hiding from justice in the country's Senate. Simply pathetic.

Venezuela massacre victims likely killed by Colombian neo-paramilitaries: Official

Venezuela massacre victims likely killed by Colombian neo-paramilitaries: Official
Mar 11, 2014 posted by Luke Horswell

The murder of five Colombians in Venezuela over the weekend is likely the work of the Colombian neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” said Colombia’s Medical Examiner’s Office Tuesday.

The institute’s director Carlos Valdes told Semana magazine that ” the cause of death corresponds, in all five cases, to a bullet passing through the skull,” a modus operandi commonly associated with Los Urabeños, who control most of Colombia’s drug trade along the Caribbean coast into the neighboring country.

Valdes added that the bodies “were in a high state of decomposition…and heavily contamination with sand and earth” so distance of the shootings and gun type were still undetermined.

The bodies of the victims were discovered on Sunday on the banks of the Tachira river near the Venezuelan town of Ureña but had been missing 48 hours previous from their home town of Cucuta on the Colombian side of the border.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/5-venezuela-murders-attributed-colombian-gang/

For anyone interested in earlier information, please see:

5 Colombians murdered in Venezuela
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110827613

Could have crossed across the border "over my dead body!"

As we have learned from events in the past, an example appearing in this article:

‘Paramilitaries dump murder victims’ bodies in Venezuela’
Apr 21, 2010 posted by Alex Hocking

Paramilitaries are commiting murders in Colombia and then dumping the bodies in Venezuela to impede the investigation, according to a report by investigative website Verdad Abierta.

The website estimates that since the year 2000 more than 200 people have been murdered in Colombia’s Norte de Santander department and surrounding areas before being dumped in the Venezuelan state of Tachira, making it difficult for Colombian authorities to recover the bodies or investigate the deaths. The victims include peasants, smugglers, social leaders, business owners and the mentally ill. The practice continues today, even after the paramilitary groups have been formally disbanded, according to the report.

Fear of reprisal from the criminal groups, the lack of organization of Venezuelan authorities, and the political tensions between Colombia and Venezuela all contribute to making the recovery of bodies and the investigative process more difficult.

The township of Juan Frio, in Norte de Santander, is a major focal point for violence. Situated on the Colombian side of the border from Tachira, it was a major stronghold for the Frente Fronteras, an urban paramilitary group that formed part of the Catatumbo Bloc of the AUC paramilitary coalition. After the group’s official dissolution in 2004, a number of splinter groups emerged that have continued the violence in the region, including dumping bodies over the border.

Cuban cultural exchange in Key West draws ire from some exiles

Posted on Saturday, 03.08.14
Cuban cultural exchange in Key West draws ire from some exiles
By Cammy Clark
cclark@MiamiHerald.com

Renowned contemporary Cuban artist Roberto Fabelo gazed at his painting of a large rooster with two nude women riding it like a horse.

“The rooster has the splendor, color, vitality and a certain amount of machismo, but here are the two women controlling it,” he said, laughing. “It represents the fabulous part of life.”

The work, Fantastic Voyage Key West, is one of three major pieces Fabelo brought to Key West as part of the two-country exhibit “Una Raza/One Race.” Curators from Cuba and the United States tout it as groundbreaking, the first cultural exchange between art institutions of the two politically hostile neighbors in the 55 years since Fidel Castro took power.

But while most of Key West has welcomed the contingent — including host sites The Studios of Key West, the Hemingway Home & Museum, the Oldest House & Garden Museum, The Florida Council of the Arts and the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum — a strong minority voice has criticized the exchange from the start.

And notably not participating in the exhibit is the San Carlos Institute, a heritage center founded in 1871 by Cuban exiles who came to Key West to plan the campaign for Cuba’s independence from Spain.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/08/3976232/cuban-cultural-exchange-in-key.html#storylink=cpy

[center]

(Jose Marti, Cuba's most famous poet, in the center)













[/center]

El Salvador's ex-guerrilla poised to win presidency in runoff election

Source: Associated Press

El Salvador's ex-guerrilla poised to win presidency in runoff election
By Marcos Aleman, The Associated Press March 8, 2014 1:24 AM

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - A former Marxist guerrilla who has promised to continue the government's popular social programs is poised to win El Salvador's presidential election runoff on Sunday, giving the ruling party a second consecutive term.

Most polls show Salvador Sanchez Ceren, 69, of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, with a lead that ranges from 10 to 18 percentage points ahead of San Salvador Mayor Norman Quijano, the candidate of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as ARENA.

Quijano, 67, campaigned with Cold War references to the country's 12-year civil war, in which the United States backed the Salvadoran government against the FMLN to stop the spread of communism in Latin America. Quijano said Sanchez Ceren, one of the top rebel commanders, would take the Central American country down a communist path and invoked images of Venezuela's late socialist president Hugo Chavez.

"The FMLN proposals are based in giving the country's sovereignty to Venezuela," he said during the campaign.
But analysts say the strategy backfired in the country of 6 million people more concerned with gang violence and a sluggish economy than ghosts of the past.


Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Salvadors+exguerrilla+poised+presidency+runoff+election/9594344/story.html

Interesting news from Panama, involving a US consulting firm, FTI Consulting,

mentioned in the O.P. in reference to the "Strategic Venezuelan Plan" concocted by Alvaro Uribe, through his "Democratic Internationalism Foundation", US firm "FTI Consulting", and the " First Colombia Think Tank."

The O.P. article says:

The plan was developed during a meeting between representatives from these three organizations, leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, an expert in psychological operations J.J. Rendon and the Director of the US Agency for International Development for Latin America, Mark Feierstein.

Leaked doc – Is Venezuela turmoil plotted from Panama?
By Okke Ornstein - March, 4th 2014


[font size=1]
Left to right: Matias Mora Simoes, Frank Holder and Jack
Dunn at the opening party of FTI Consulting in Panama.[/font]

Now that eight foreign “terrorists” have been arrested in Caracas and evidence appeared on the web that the fascist wing of the Cuban exile community is plotting and scheming in Miami to end the Bolivarian project in Venezuela, why not look at Panama for a moment to see where our little isthmus fits in?

After all, we’ve had plenty of allegations coming from Venezuela that Panama is a center for anti-democracy planning as well, and our former narco-ambassador at the OAS, Guillermo Cochez, has been yelling and twittering his ass off against everything Chavez, Maduro and evil socialism in general, including a failed ploy to “prove” that Maduro wasn’t really a Venezuelan citizen.

Ah, but in November last year, lawyer Eva Golinger – author of the best seller The Chavez Code – wrote on her blog about damning documents. A cabal of US consultants, Colombia’s former paramilitary narco-president Alvaro Uribe and loyalists had supposedly drafted a document on how to overthrow the Chavistas. Wrote Golinger:

The document, titled “Strategic Venezuelan Plan”, was prepared by the Democratic Internationalism Foundation (http://fidauv.org), headed by ex Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, together with the First Colombia Think Tank (http://www.pensamientocolombia.org) and the US Consulting firm, FTI Consulting (http://www.fticonsulting.com). Dated June 13, 2013, the plan was developed during a meeting between representatives from these three organizations, leaders of the Venezuelan opposicion, including Maria Corina Machado, Julio Borges and Ramon Guillermo Avelado, expert in psychological operations J.J. Rendon and the Director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for Latin America, Mark Feierstein.

The strategic plan to destabilize Venezuela has the primary goal of debilitating the government before the December 8 municipal elections, as revealed in the document: “The objectives put forth in the present plan are essentially geared towards the municipal elections set for December 8, while at the same time including the accelerated deterioration of the government, facilitating an opposition victory for this event…” Though the text states further, “…but if it could be done beforehand, that would be even better”.

The document also details the strategy to sabotage the electrical system in Venezuela, with the objective of blaming the government for a weak infrastructure and therefore projecting an image of crisis in Venezuela on an international level. As part of the plan, the authors propose, “To maintain and increase the sabotages that affect public services, particularly the electrical system, that will enable responsibility to be placed on the government for supposed inefficiencies and negligence”. For the past few months, blackouts and other electrical shortages have affected different regions throughout Venezuela, causing general discontent and reflecting negatively on the government. Just weeks ago, Venezuelan authorities detained various individuals involved in sabotaging the electrical system and at the end of September, President Maduro expelled three US diplomats from the US Embassy in Caracas for their alleged role in destabilization plans against the state.

In the section labeled “Actions”, the authors of the document detail their next steps to undermine the Venezuelan government. In addition to “Perfecting the confrontational discourse of Henrique Capriles”, the opposition candidate who lost to Maduro in April’s presidential elections, they also talk of “Generating emotion with short messages that reach the largest quantity of people and emphasize social problems, provoking social discontent. Increase problems with supply of basic consumer products".

Plan Estratégico Venezuela
13 de junio de 2013

Democracy in Latin America has suffered a setback and is kidnapped by populist governments that prohibit, violate and intimidated the liberal thinking, freedom of expression and human rights in the region.

El Centro de Pensamiento Primero Colombia (The Center of Thought First Colombia) supports free and open discussion of the liberal thought in Latin America to disarm the expanded threat in the region with the violation of Human Rights and of the Popular Will.

By such facts in conjunction with the FTI Consulting and with the Fundacion Internacionalismo Democratico (Foundation Democratic Internationalism), we work to restore democracy in Latin America that has been aggrieved by the pseudo-progressive regimes led by Venezuela.
The Venezuelan Strategic Plan, agreed with worthy representatives of the opposition to the government of Nicolas Maduro, and is geared toward these objectives with the strong and constant support of several leading personalities in work to return Venezuela to true democracy and independence that has been held hostage by more than 14 years.

Time

We have 185 days to reach the goals set for Venezuelan Strategic Plan and to execute the action designed to achieve the objective.

Scope

In the entire territory of the Republic of Venezuela, to all the sectors of Venezuelan citizenship and to all the government and administrative institutions of the country.

Actions

• To refine the confrontational speech and complainant, Henrique Capriles. That is more fresh and attractive but at the same time to show resolution and consistency in its lines. Clearly establish the motto "We are a better alternative."To generate excitement with short messages but ones that reach greater numbers of people, returning to the social problems, causing social discontent. To increase the problems with shortages of basic products of the food basket.
  
  
• To maintain and increase the sabotage that affect services to the population particularly to the electrical system, that allows for blaming the government for alleged inefficiencies and negligence.
  
  
• To support the normalization of US-Venezuelan relations. This, will dilute the campaign of the government on the interference of the United States and justify the direct contact between our related forces.
  
  
• To create crisis situations in the streets to facilitate the intervention by the United States and NATO forces, with the support of the government of Colombia. When possible, the violence must cause deaths and injuries. Encourage hunger strikes of several days, mass mobilizations, problems in universities and other sectors of society already identified as governmental institutions.
  
  
• To move all available forces to compile a dossier of disrepute and weakening of the government that will give greater credibility to the opposition. With the support of the United States government, manipulate the involvement of the government and senior officials with drug trafficking and money laundering.
  
  
• To enhance the actions of lobbying governments in Latin America, mainly in those countries that may be more sensitive to the pressures of our allies, namely Colombia, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and Honduras. At the same time depressing the governments of countries allied to the regime, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua generating discredit in both regions.To increase the supply of financial funds that Venezuelan opposition receives, aiming to reach at least 55% of the mayors in the municipal elections.
  
  
• To maintain and increase the campaign against Cuban interference; to affect the main social missions and diminish popular support for the government. To especially treat the presence of Cuban soldiers in the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
  
  
• To prepare and disseminate printed and audiovisual materials that expand the matrices of opinion in our interest, with the slogan, "We are a better alternative." In addition to identify and reattribute identified problems that point to the opposition.
  
  
• Hire journalists and reporters from 9 international media: CNN, The New York Times, The New York Post, Reuters, AP, EFE, The Miami Herald, Time, BBC, and Venezuela’s Clarín, ABC, among others. To these ends make the necessary contacts with the Foreign Press Association in Caracas.
  
  
• To promote the pronouncements of opinon leaders and personalities around the world who identify with the feeling of our plans and actions in favor of Venezuela.
  
  
• To extend the image of a severe crisis in Venezuela to more external media and possible countries as a means of managing international public opinion.

More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_66152.shtml

Imminent release of Colombia far-right militia leaders draws concern

Source: Associated Press

Imminent release of Colombia far-right militia leaders draws concern
By Libardo Cardona, The Associated Press
March 7, 2014 1:23 AM

BOGOTA - One veteran of Colombia's disbanded far-right militias admitted to ordering or taking part in at least 3,000 killings, mostly targeting leftists, and incinerating many of the corpses to destroy evidence.

Another ordered a hit on a prominent intellectual who had been unjustly accused of backing insurgents and whose laptop held evidence that helped convict Colombia's then-national spy chief in the killing.

Those two men and about 400 other right-wing paramilitaries are due to walk free this year after serving eight-year sentences for crimes that normally carry more than triple the prison terms. The first is expected to be released within days.

Their lenient sentences were enshrined in a 2005 "Justice and Peace" law that provided a legal framework for the militias' supposed dismantling under a peace deal with the government of then-President Alvaro Uribe.









Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Imminent+release+Colombia+farright+militia+leaders+draws+concern/9589367/story.html

Manufacturing Contempt for Venezuela

Manufacturing Contempt for Venezuela
Written by Cyril Mychalejko
Tuesday, 04 March 2014 22:55

A profile of the Venezuelan opposition’s systematic misinformation campaign and social media’s contribution to it.

these allegations and images which have gone viral globally, and even used by media outlets, is that they are fabrications; many of the most viral photos allegedly from Venezuela have actually depicted images from places such as Syria, Chile, Brazil - and even a US-based porn site.

“Initial, inaccurate information will be retweeted more than any subsequent correction,” wrote Craig Silverman, journalist and founder of the blog Regret the Error, for the Poynter Institute in a post in 2010. Silverman’s insight reveals the dangers, often ignored, about the use of Twitter and social media as a news source, as well as a tool for liberation and uprisings.

However, the way social media is being used, or some might say abused, in Venezuela is not the result of a few “bad apples” or some mischievous students taking part in opposition protests. In fact, this propaganda technique is being used by high profile opposition figures, while training anti-chavista Venezuelans to use social media has been a project of Washington for some time now.

According to Caracas-based journalist and attorney Eva Golinger, the US spent “nearly $15 million annually by 2007...directed towards youth and student groups [in Venezuela], including training in the use of social networks to mobilize political activism. Student leaders were sent to the US for workshops and conferences on Internet activism and media networking. They were formed in tactics to promote regime change via street riots and strategic use of media to portray the government as repressive.”

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/4728-manufacturing-contempt-for-venezuela

Venezuela says 2 mayors face charges of failing to maintain order

Venezuela says 2 mayors face charges of failing to maintain order
By MERY MOGOLLON AND CHRIS KRAUL
Los Angeles Times
March 5, 2014

CARACAS, Venezuela — In signs of a crackdown on protests that have paralyzed parts of Venezuela for three weeks, President Nicolas Maduro's government said Thursday that two mayors faced charges of neglecting their duties, and it issued an arrest warrant for a university rector.

The government actions came as two more people were killed in violence related to protests against the Maduro administration over crime, food shortages, a weak economy and human rights. The dead were identified as a member of the National Guard and a member of the pro-government militant groups known as colectivos.

The two died during a clash in the Los Ruices barrio when government supporters tried to remove a barricade erected by protesters. The member of the militant groups was identified as Jose Gregorio Amaris Castillo, 25. The National Guard member's name was not immediately released.

The clashes followed a tense two-hour standoff between residents of apartment buildings and the armed colectivos. Residents threw bottles at the militants to keep them from clearing the debris that blocked streets. As of Thursday afternoon, disturbances were still being reported in the area.

Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly, said the two victims were killed by a rooftop sniper and that those responsible would be brought to justice.

More:
http://www.adn.com/2014/03/05/3361200/venezuela-says-2-mayors-face-charges.html#storylink=cpy

Ex-guerilla closes in on El Salvador election win

Ex-guerilla closes in on El Salvador election win
By Nelson Renteria
SAN SALVADOR Thu Mar 6, 2014 8:01pm GMT


(Reuters) - A former Marxist guerrilla leader looks poised to win El Salvador's presidential election runoff on Sunday as voters embrace his ruling party's social programs despite opposition allegations that he plans to veer the country to the radical left.

Polls show Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a top leader of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) rebel army during the country's 1980-92 civil war, with about 55 percent support ahead of the runoff vote, enough to secure his party a second consecutive term.

His opponent Norman Quijano, the conservative former mayor of the capital, San Salvador, trails with about 45 percent amid waning support for his right-wing Arena party. Quijano has warned the ex-rebel will move El Salvador to the radical left and bow to the influence of Latin America's leading U.S. antagonist, socialist-led Venezuela.

Sanchez Ceren, an affable but media-shy 69-year-old, denies those claims and has courted the vote of moderate conservatives who have broken with Arena.He is also promising to expand social programs, such as free school supplies and pensions for the elderly, that have won support among the poor.

"We will dedicate all our energy, all the experience we have accumulated fighting for the people for so long, and we will put it all to work to deepen these changes," Sanchez Ceren said on Sunday at a rally before thousands of supporters waving red flags.

More:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/uk-elsalvador-election-idUKBREA2523M20140306?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401